Alejandro stopped to write 'Important'’ beside the number 47 to illuminate the vast difference in response time.
He started walking again but stopped when he reread, 'armed' before the words 'security guard' in both places. He circled 'armed' and wrote 'Important!' beside the circle.
When he resumed walking, Alejandro flipped to the back of his notepad where he had recorded the Internet details he discovered about the place he was visiting. Malevcon Mining Ltd. was a Canadian-owned, gold mining operation that set up in Peru in 2008. No wonder they have a huge security fence around the site: it is a gold mine!
He had learned in his science lessons that gold – symbol Au on the periodic table – was usually the most valuable metal on Earth and thus it made sense to protect it.
He closed his notepad and picked up his pace. Although this was his third trip to Malevcon, he had not seen any sign of workers so far. He understood that mines needed workers. In case he eventually decided to perform a detailed search here, he had to determine the hours of operation so that he could search when no one was around.
By his own estimation, he was still half a kilometre away from the fences when he heard a faint blast and felt a mild tremor in the ground. This alarmed him, but he knew he needed to be strong and carry on – he had serious mysteries to solve.
After the blast, Alejandro crouched low as he approached the mine and stopped at his previous hiding place. From two hundred metres, he did not need the zoom lens in his camera to detect that there were over a dozen human beings walking around within the fences. He expected to find people eventually, nevertheless, seeing them all so close now overwhelmed him. ¡Caramba!
He listened carefully from his hiding spot and could detect the occasional Spanish word. He would love to run up and say '¡Hola amigos!' to them, but he could not risk it. Since he had a contagious disease, he knew that it would be wrong to expose them to risk. He continued to watch and wait.
As he watched so many people moving around the site, Alejandro wondered what time they would stop working. So far, his detective activities had told him that Malevcon's miners did not work Saturdays or Sundays, but they worked weekdays. For how long? He knew he could only conduct his third test of the security system with no one around.
He looked at his timepiece and it showed 2:20 PM. He resolved to head home for lunch, and to return around the time he thought they would leave for their evening meals. He turned around, crept away to a safe distance, and then ran home.
Alejandro remained excited throughout lunch, but realized he had several hours to go before the dinner hour. He decided, since he had been neglecting his language lessons of late, that he should continue with them now.
As he recited his Mandarin lesson, Alejandro noticed himself pacing again and yet normally he found language learning calming. He needed to remain calm because twelve days ago his guardians had disappeared.
For as long as Alejandro could remember, one guardian had always been present in his life, but twelve days ago when he awoke, neither one was in the dwelling, nor had either shown up since!
The first day that neither guardian came, he obeyed the rules and stayed close to the dwelling. On the second day, he wondered if his guardians were testing his obedience. By the third day, he became nervous and wondered if he should explore outside the perimeter. On day four, he decided to leave the dwelling and search beyond the perimeter area. He was fortunate to have succeeded months ago in bypassing the electronic signal to his wristband. He could secretly cross the boundary whenever he chose.
The first place he considered looking was his guardians' workplace in the mountain. Half way through his walk to their laboratory entrance, he experienced a flashback about their potential surveillance system. He recalled that when he had spied on Paul last October he had grown paranoid at the thought of those inside spying on him.
After thinking this, and combined with his knowing that he had a severely contagious disease, Alejandro had concluded that he should not return to their lab unless he became desperate.
More recently again, Alejandro had spent the next three days exploring areas to the south and east. He wondered if an animal had attacked them or they had fallen from a high height. Despite his searching, he had found no trace of his guardians.
By the eighth day, he searched northwest of his dwelling and found Malevcon. He returned Sunday, the next day. He planned to return to the site on Monday, but a combination of rain and fog disrupted his plans that day and yesterday. He still had not found any trace of his guardians. What a mystery!
As he continued pacing in his dwelling, Alejandro suddenly experienced a worrisome thought. What if my spying on that day back in October caused their disappearance? He had walked very close to his guardians' laboratory in the mountainside that day. Had he caused an illness by contaminating their research area? If he caused one illness, had it spread? Had he killed everyone in the facility? If so, then his guardians were dead!
Alejandro had remained strong the whole time during his guardians' absence, but now he concluded that he had caused their deaths! He began to cry. He cried for several minutes.
Eventually his grief turned to despair: he realized that without his guardians' research he would die soon. No one can cure me now! If he died soon, he would never experience the things he had dreamed of doing. Then his despair transformed into panic. He realised he had no idea how his disease would progress. Will my limbs rot? Will my eyes fall out? Will my brain explode?
He had to stop thinking this way. He needed a new distraction. He turned on the TV and selected the Space channel. He watched a movie for a few minutes until a scene in it showed a medical recovery facility. A character lay on a bed with blood oozing out of both ears. Alejandro turned the TV off faster than he had ever turned it on.
Aloud he said, "I really need to stay away from scary movies for a while!"
Alejandro thought about his guardians again. What did his guardians do for him to make him feel better when he was sad? When he scraped his knee that time, Eva gave him ice cream. He went to the fridge freezer and served himself an extra large bowl full of ice cream.
As he ate, he thought about them again. What would they want him to do in their absence, if he could not search for them at their lab? At present, he could not think of a better answer than to keep on with his language lessons. He enjoyed them, and they were a productive way to spend his time while he waited to return to the mine.
He had started with Mandarin a few minutes ago. He recalled that Eva had told him that Mandarin had three times the number of speakers than any other language, and that China was an important economic power. Alejandro did not enjoy his Mandarin lessons and opted to pass on Mandarin this afternoon.
Eva had said English was important because it was the language of technology. It was prevalent on the Internet and TV. He decided to pass on English this afternoon, because he felt he was learning that language quickly and easily enough.
Eva had told him to continue improving his Spanish because it was the dominant tongue in the area and besides it had in excess of 350 million speakers worldwide. Spanish was very easy for him to learn though, and he opted to pass on it as well – he wanted a challenge!
Finally, he decided to continue with his French lesson while he waited. Eva had explained that the United Nations used French as the language of diplomacy. The United Nations required its linguistic translators to speak French as a universal fail safe – French was the language that all diplomats had to know.
Alejandro selected a CD; placed it in the player; and pressed the start button. He heard a female voice speak in French, 'écouter et répéter'. Alejandro mentally translated, 'listen and repeat'. He continued with his French lesson for 20 minutes.
When the lesson ended, he thought about Eva again, and how the second last time she had spoken to him, she had encouraged Alejandro to learn an Indian dialect, but the last time he saw her she had yet to select between a Hindi or an Urdu dialect – there were
so many from which to choose!
He turned on the TV and this time selected a safe show. He picked Bugs Bunny in English with Spanish subtitles. He rationalized that if he was going to end his formal lessons after only 20 minutes, then watching Bugs was a reasonable compromise, because he was learning English as he watched.
After he watched this, he looked at his timepiece – 4:10. He still had at least an hour to wait, by his estimation. He changed the channel to a different kid's channel, where he found a Japanese 'anime' film called Akira. It had Spanish subtitles also, but the Japanese language sounded vaguely like Mandarin to him.
As he watched, he determined that although Japanese had similar issues to the Mandarin he struggled with, nevertheless with the aid of pictures and a story, he could listen to the various inflections of this new language in their proper context!
Alejandro decided to keep watching the film because it was a challenge! He soon discovered he was able to learn Japanese from the Spanish subtitles, and translate its words into English for fun as he went! What a great way to spend an afternoon!
After the film ended, it was 5:30. Alejandro grabbed his backpack, packed fruit, water, and his notepad in it; added a flashlight and his trusty camera; and then, burst out the door feeling confident. He ran most of the way to Malevcon, but slowed as he approached it.
He crouched, well hidden, for several minutes, and observed the site through his zoomed camera lens. The workers must have left because Alejandro noticed just one car in the parking lot. Obviously as before, this belonged to a security guard.
When he finished his camera surveillance, Alejandro decided it was time to perform his last test. Before he headed to the fence, however, he needed to record his findings. He slipped through the encroaching darkness in the shadows and noted the car was the same Humvee as before.
He stealthily returned to his throwing spot and hurled the rock. Again, the ear-splitting loudness of the alarm shocked him despite his knowing by now that it would happen. As he saw the flashing red lights, he rushed to his hiding place and began his timer.
Eventually, he noticed a flashlight emerging from the main gate, and wrote in his notepad that it only took the security guard 6 minutes to arrive. He thought the guard resembled the one from Saturday in that he had no moustache also. The guard on Sunday did. Once he saw the guard return within the main gate and turn off his flashlight, Alejandro ran home.
That was much better than watching TV!
Once he arrived home, he analyzed his new data and concluded that Sunday's slow response time was significant. Could I get in and out of there this Sunday without being caught?
He ate a meal, and then headed to shower himself about 7 PM. While showering, Alejandro heard a very loud noise from overhead. He had heard airplanes before, but infrequently and only from afar. This overhead noise however, was close. He identified it as a whirring noise. For a few seconds, he thought it might be his guardians returning at last to explain to him their lengthy absence! Then he realized it could be someone from the mine coming to harm him!
He turned the water off and stood quietly listening. The noise grew ferociously loud and Alejandro proportionately more frightened as this happened. Then, as quickly as it grew, the noise began to fade.
He continued to stand soaking wet but motionless until the noise faded away completely. He stood in the tub with the light blue-coloured shower curtain still shut, and with the powder blue, tiled wall surrounding him. He felt safe in this blue cubicle.
When his heart stopped racing, he reached out for a towel. As he dried his arm, he noticed it had turned blue. He recalled a science fiction movie he watched a few days ago called The Abyss. During the movie, a woman appeared to drown but later a man saved her. When she appeared drowned, Alejandro recalled her skin turned blue – although not this blue!
As he began to rub his arm harder, he could feel dryness, yet his skin remained blue. This was odd because he had no sense of drowning – the idea was silly!
Something was wrong though, because Alejandro's arm was now as blue as the wall tiles. In fact, when he looked below at his legs and feet, they were the same colour blue.
He stepped out of the shower and felt his heart racing again. He looked in the mirror and saw he was blue from top to bottom!
He understood the normal changes of puberty, in fact, he could also see some of those changes in the mirror – adult hair under his arms and around his groin – but nothing his guardians had told him about puberty prepared him for this! Where on Earth had they gone!